Michael Connelly and Harry Bosch. when it comes to murder mysteries, they are quite the team. Got a lot read this morning cooling my buns to see if my day on jury duty would bring service or a bust.
Los Angeles is a powder keg, on the edge of burning. Michael Harris, a local low life, was accused of a brutal abduction and murder of the young daughter of a politically well-placed family. But he gets off and turns around and brings a civil rights case against the LAPD, saying he was tortured and beaten during the interrogation. His attorney is Frank Elias who has made a good living out of suing the police for civil rights violations. But this time, Harris is right...he really was tortured and Elias has the proof to make the case that will put him on Nightline, 60 Minutes, Larry King and Oprah....and he has proof about who killed that little girl that he will unveil during the trial. Friday night before the trial opens, Elias is brutally murdered on a small funicular rail car, the Angel Flight, that runs between his office building and his apartment. A bystander was also killed.
Normally, division robbery/homicide would handle the case, but that is the unit Harris and Elias are after. Bosch and his team work out of Hollywood division and get the case to ward off potential conflict of interest. Because it is possible that a cop killed Elias, internal affairs is brought in at the start as well as the FBI on possible civil rights violations. IAD calls in one cop that Harry is sure had nothing to do with Elias's murder, but he is eventually released throwing gas on a smoldering tinder that is LA. The city starts to erupt with fires and looting in the southern neighborhoods and protest spring up around the LA basin. Bosch sees a connection between the murders of Elias and the little girl. The trail moves away from Harris to the family's security man, her family, through the pedophilia and dominatrix underground, to an old partner of Harry, then right to ground zero of riot central. All this happening just when Harry's wife of about a year succumbs to a gambling addiction and leaves to sort things out in Las Vegas.
The Connelly/Bosch stories are among my favorites, and so far I can't rank them, they all are consistently plotted and presented with enough unseen twists and dead ends to keep you turning the pages. I was in a break between requested books from the library so I picked this up and my time reading it was well occupied. I have a more recent Ken Bruer book on my nightstand, but it will have to wait. The first of my summer books rose up the request queue and I will start it tonight. Have to, only have it for a week. The Expediter by David Hagberg, one of my power rotation authors. political thriller. Check back in a week.
East Coast Don
p.s. jury service was a bust. left the jury room around noon.
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